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Meant to get this done a lot sooner, but delighted to be able to post this on the same day as "65" became available to stream digitally. Happy Mills Day!
***SPOILERS AHOY, YE HAVE BEEN WARNED***
Mills has been on wary watch, guarding a traumatized Koa who had retreated physically and mentally after they both barely survived a prolonged and vicious dinosaur attack. He's been patiently waiting for her to recover her emotional balance, but the day is waning, they need to be looking for shelter for the night, and Koa remains huddled in the lee of a large boulder, still refusing to even look at him.
And so, in an attempt to coax her to engage with him, Mills cups his hands together and blows into the hand whistle he's made. It's such a gentle way to get her attention, him making this soft, mournful sound, peeking at her between breaths to see if she's looking at him yet.
This is one of those moments, where he's paused to take a breath and is stealing a carefully solemn but hopeful glance in her direction, while keeping his face in line with his hands. Mills' eyebrows are raised just enough to rumple his forehead a little, but not so far that it's in worried furrows, rounding his eyes a little; the rest of his face is held carefully blank, pretending he isn't trying to lure her out of her shell, letting her choose when she's ready to interact.
It's Koa's first glimpse of the gentle, caring father he can be, hidden underneath the brusque, gruff mask he's using to protect his grief-stricken heart.
Photo used for reference was a theater screencap taken by driverfever, cropped by me.
About 24 hrs of painting time, which is a lot more than I had expected given the relatively blurry nature of the reference. The color is the result of 8 color overlays; I also had a color gradient map for the skin tones, but decided not to use it in the end.
***SPOILERS AHOY, YE HAVE BEEN WARNED***
Mills has been on wary watch, guarding a traumatized Koa who had retreated physically and mentally after they both barely survived a prolonged and vicious dinosaur attack. He's been patiently waiting for her to recover her emotional balance, but the day is waning, they need to be looking for shelter for the night, and Koa remains huddled in the lee of a large boulder, still refusing to even look at him.
And so, in an attempt to coax her to engage with him, Mills cups his hands together and blows into the hand whistle he's made. It's such a gentle way to get her attention, him making this soft, mournful sound, peeking at her between breaths to see if she's looking at him yet.
This is one of those moments, where he's paused to take a breath and is stealing a carefully solemn but hopeful glance in her direction, while keeping his face in line with his hands. Mills' eyebrows are raised just enough to rumple his forehead a little, but not so far that it's in worried furrows, rounding his eyes a little; the rest of his face is held carefully blank, pretending he isn't trying to lure her out of her shell, letting her choose when she's ready to interact.
It's Koa's first glimpse of the gentle, caring father he can be, hidden underneath the brusque, gruff mask he's using to protect his grief-stricken heart.
Photo used for reference was a theater screencap taken by driverfever, cropped by me.
About 24 hrs of painting time, which is a lot more than I had expected given the relatively blurry nature of the reference. The color is the result of 8 color overlays; I also had a color gradient map for the skin tones, but decided not to use it in the end.
